Specs & Pricing

Music
Classical
of thoughtfulness and vivacity. In the fugues
of both pieces, Fleisher’s even runs, precise
trills, and clarification of the work’s strands
are unimpeachable. The Capriccio, often played
with theatricality, is given its programmatic due
but treated with understated wit—the piano’s
mimicking of the posthorn effective without
undue emphasis as the basis of the fugue
and not as a climax. Mozart’s early gem, the
Sonata in E-flat Major, K. 282, gets a flowing
performance notable for the characterization
of the middle movement’s contrasting dances
and the gravity of the opening Adagio.
Chopin’s lovely Berceuse won’t erase memories
of Moravec or Rubinstein, replacing their
Romanticism with more objectified emotion.
The lone “modern” entry is Stravinsky’s
neo-classic Serenade in A, an unfairly neglected
four-movement work. Fleisher brings a touch
of Lisztian declamation to the opening of the
imposing Hymne and plenty of charm to the
rest, adopting a dry-wine timbre that perfectly
suits it. The recital closes with a Beethoven
Bagatelle, Fur Elise, which Fleisher makes into a
fetching lesson in pacing, rhythmic suppleness,
and gorgeous legato, turning this salon staple
into an endless stream of melody. A bonus
interview disc is also included.
First-rate sonics convey Fleisher’s beautiful
tone and wide range of dynamic and timbral
shadings with warm realism, the sparkling
treble notes rich with overtones and the bass
solid. The engineering is close-up enough to
occasionally capture the sound of fingers on
the keys while also putting some air around the
instrument. A must-have. Dan Davis
Further Listening: Fleisher: Beethoven
Piano Concertos; Fleisher: Two Hands
Beethoven: Piano
Concertos Nos. 3
and 4.
Leon Fleisher, piano; Cleveland
Orchestra, George Szell, conductor.
Charles Harbutt, reissue producer;
Howard H. Scott, original producer.
Sony 78767.
Mozart: Symphonies
Nos. 28, 33 and
35. Eine Kleine
Nachtmusik; Overture to Le
Nozze di Figaro.
Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell,
conductor. Andreas Meyer, reissue
producer; Paul Myers, Howard H.
Scott, and Andrew Kazdin, original
producers. Sony 78765.
Earlier this year, Sony Classical re-launched its
“Great Performances” mid-price CD reissue
series with new remasterings using the Direct
Stream Digital process and a slate of material new
to disc. Comes now the second wave of 10 titles,
featuring Leonard Bernstein’s iconic Beethoven
Fifth with the New York Philharmonic, the
world-premiere recording of Shostakovich’s Cello
Concerto No. 1 (with Mstislav Rostropovich
joining Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia
Orchestra), and a generous offering of chestnuts
from George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra.
The bounty includes Szell’s outstanding Brahms
First with the Clevelanders, the Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto with Zino Francescatti, and the
two discs up for review here.
It is good to see Leon Fleisher’s accounts
of the Beethoven piano concertos among the
new releases, and to hear them sounding as
if they were newly minted. Fleisher’s playing
is fluent, noble, and technically impeccable (if
not particularly theatrical), while Szell and his
band provide a fine-hewn accompaniment that
is buttoned-down almost to a fault, perfectly
suiting the soloist’s poised approach. The
Mozartean grace these interpreters achieve in
the outer movements of both works suggests
a determination not to overplay the drama
latent in Beethoven’s vigorous reworking of
the Classical model, yet the music making is
far from detached—both slow movements are
emotionally riveting.
Bartók: Mikrokosmos.
Jen Jandó, piano. Ibolya Tóth, producer; János Bohus, engineer. Naxos 8.557821-22
(two CDs).
For years, Jen Jandó has been the house pianist at Naxos. He’s done cycles of Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt along with a
variety of other fare, much of it excellent, all of it respectable. His portfolio already includes a handful of discs devoted
to the music of his countryman Béla Bartók. Here he turns to what is certainly the most familiar of Bartók’s solo piano
works, the six books of progressive piano pieces known as Mikrokosmos. Anyone who has studied piano during the past
60 years has encountered this compendium, and learned to either love it or hate it.
The 153 pieces, a 20th-century Gradus ad Parnassum, begin with simple unison exercises and ascend through various technical difficulties—
involving intervals, chords, ostinatos, syncopations, contrary motion, modal scales, and assorted rhythmic and metric complications—to fully
realized virtuosity in the closing pieces of Book VI. Yet already by the concluding piece of Book I, “Free Canon,” you know this music could
only be by Bartók and nobody else. And by the first piece in Book V, “Chords Together and in Opposition,” you know you’ve arrived at bigleague
Bartók. The way Jandó plays it here sends a thrill of admiration through the wrists of this writer, who would have loved to be able to
dispatch it so dashingly.
Throughout this transit of Mikrokosmos, Jandó presents each exercise as a musical gesture, without wringing too much out of the notes or
dryly going through the motions. Even in the simplest of the pieces in Book I, he attends carefully to the shaping of sound, while in the most
challenging pieces from the later books, particularly the ones set in compound Bulgarian rhythms, he’s as steady as a spinning top. (If you think
it’s only budding pianists who have to contend with the Bulgarian stuff, listen to the scherzo of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5, and observe four
grown men struggling to keep from going off the rails.)
The recorded sound is as direct as the playing—a solid, pleasantly dry studio sound that makes no attempt at mimicking a recital hall
ambience, and is exactly right for the music. Mezzo-soprano Tamara Takács provides the vocals for songs in Books II, III, and V, and pianist
Balázs Szokolay does the honors as second pianist in the two-piano pieces sprinkled through the collection. Ted Libbey
Further Listening: Bartók: Out of Doors, Ten Easy Pieces, Allegro barbaro (Jandó); Bartók: String Quartets (Emerson Quartet)
138 December 2006 The Absolute Sound